Month: October 2018

I missed last quarter’s report so here it is up to today, and I’ll post another one for year’s end.

TFSA: $61,636.75

It’s up $24,807.38 since April… but it’s not actually that great. This is pretty blown out of proportion because we’re holding HST in there until it’s due, so that number is way higher than it should be. Another factor that makes that leap seem huge is I’m now just reporting the current market value of the TFSA because it’s gotten too confusing for me to figure out what I was doing before (which was something like tracking the book value of only the money contributed, ignoring changes in market value, which was useful to see how many net dollars were making their way into the account, but it also painted an unrealistic picture of the real-world value of the holdings and accounts for that past number being lower than it should have been).

SO from now on, market value is what you get!

I’m also happy to announce that my TFSA is now maxed out, and we’re stuffing Lia’s next. Why not have started with Lia’s, you’re wondering? It’s because we’re also rebuilding her SDRRSP from having demolished it to buy our house, so it seemed right to have some assets under my name. Not that it matters. We’re each other’s beneficiaries anyway.

I spoke to someone at TD to figure out where that TFSA limit was, and it’s actually on your most recent CRA Notice of Assessment (I think it says how much you’re still allowed to contribute to your TFSA). Because mine has also earned distributions (paid out in Dec) and appreciated in value, that explains why the value of my TFSA exceeds the 2018 contribution limit (of $57,500 if you were to start today).

The best thing to do with a TFSA is max it out, then leave it full so it can:

Appreciate in market value at an average rate of 7% over the long haul.

Earn roughly 2% in annual distributions in December, tax free. So at some point in late December, something like $1,200 in mutual funds will automatically be added to my holdings. Compound interest baby!

So at some point in 2019 I’ll put $6,000 into my TFSA.

Debt / Mortgage: $159,968.15

Down $3607.19 since last report. I love seeing the 5 in there where the 6 was now that it’s below $160,000. The iceberg is melting.

Once the levain has risen and is showing lots of bubbles on top, we can see if we’re ready to move onto the next step (bulk fermentation) by taking a spoonful of the levain dough and dropping it into a full cup of water. If it floats, that means we’re good to proceed (because the dough is full of air, which is a sign of excellent yeast activity).

If the spoonful of dough sinks, wait a little longer. You may have tested too early, and there may be more time for the dough to rise. If you can’t get it to float, don’t advance to the next steps – it will just end in sadness with nothing works out from here on in. Instead, go back to working with your starter (at room temperature the whole time) discarding half, feeding (which is just adding flour and water), waiting for it to rise fully, discarding half, feeding.. on repeat until it’s obvious that your starter is very “active” – meaning it’s rising as quickly as possible after every feed. An active starter leads to an active levain which leads to a successful bulk fermentation which leads to a successful bake.

But your levain passed the float test! So you’re ready to move onto the next step toward actually baking BREAD (or making pizza, or bagels, etc… regardless of what we’re making this bulk fermentation stage is the same).

Here’s the process for bulk fermentation:

Once bulk fermentation is complete, you can do anything you want with it. I will be showing you how to bake bread, turn it into pizza, make bagels with it, or roll it into one big dirty log of cinnamon raisin brown sugary debauchery.

Once the starter has strengthened to the point where it is consistently rising to double or triple its size within one day (or ideally, faster) and you’ve been discarding half (or more) at the top of the rise to mix in fresh flour and water, you may be ready to bake with it.
You can test this by feeding your starter and letting it rise to double or triple in size. Take a spoonful of it and drop that spoonful of starter into a full glass of water. If it floats, you’re ready to move onto the next step (because it’s full of air bubbles, which is a sign of good yeast activity).
All we’re doing in this next step is scaling up the amount of dough we’re fermenting. There isn’t enough active yeast in the starter to cause a large amount of dough to ferment in a reasonable amount of time, so we work up to it gradually with this middle step: the levain. Here’s we’re essentially just making a larger starter. I’m preparing to bake 2 loaves, so I’m mixing a pretty large starter. Even if you’re only baking one loaf, having a larger starter is a good idea as having more active yeast going into the bulk fermentation (the step after the levain) will help with a faster fermentation time.
To mix the levain, I combine most of my starter (you need to keep some of it for future bakes, so be sure not to use ALL of your starter!) with 5 heaping tablespoons of flour and enough water to achieve that thick doughey consistency – like thick peanut butter. I aim for a thick texture because a soupy consistency is more difficult to monitor for changes. A “stiff” dough will rise more obviously because it has more structural strength and does a better job of trapping all the gasses released during fermentation. A really runny dough will bubble at the surface, but it might not rise as much (because the gasses can get out through the top).
Once mixed, wrap the levain in a clear bag so you can keep in the moisture and watch it rise. The rise will take only a few hours if your environment is, and it could take closer to 24 hours if you’re baking in a cold environment. It’s fall right now, so ours will probably rise in about 12 hours.

Once the levain has risen fully, we’re ready to move on to the next step, which is mixing a big ball of dough to ferment and then bake – called bulk fermentation.